WEST SIDE STORY: ARMORY NEWS

Critical Conversations In a Limo
What's the perfect vehicle for critical discussions of today's contemporary art world? A sleek, pimped-out, champagne-filled, white stretch limo, of course, a conceit cooked up to shuttle people to the DIVA fair. Two intrepid ArtInfo correspondents took the plunge with El Museo del Barrio director Julian Zugazagoitia (with five-year-old son Alex in tow), art historian Horace Brockington, and a motley assortment of artists, cruisin' down the West Side Highway, and it was all being caught on tape. Zugazagoitia kicked-off the debate with some provocative suggestions from Pablo Helguera's Manual of Contemporary Art Style, a tongue-in-cheek etiquette guide to successfully navigating the social ins and outs of the art world. Are collectors the center of power in the art world? What is the role of institutions and of curators? But conversation veered off topic as the champagne flowed. "Have you ever been in love with a curator?" asked one artist. And as in any drunken art world conversation, the topic of Larry Gagosian came up. "Who would not want to be an artist showing with Larry Gagosian?" Zugazagoitia asked. "He would have to take me out to a candlelight dinner first," replied one Latino artist. "I'm not that easy."

Texas Round-Up
Overheard at the Armory: Some of the most important collectors from Austin, Texas have been spotted prowling the piers. "The two richest guys in the city are here with their wives buying art," said one lone-star state gallerist. Among the biggest names, computer electronics mogul Michael Dell of Dell computers has been spied scouting for new talent. In fact, Austin galleries feel a bit snubbed by high-rolling hometown collectors. "We know that they buy art," the gallery owner continued, "They just don't buy it in Austin."

On Threat of Being Disowned
Some dealers are more willing than others to discuss prices with anyone who does not appear to be a potential buyer. When we enquired at PaceWildenstein about the price of a wonderful, large-scale Kiki Smith sculpture, Seer (Alice II) 2005, Marc Glimcher refused to be drawn. “But isn’t it good for business to have people know what an artist’s prices are?” we asked, ‘Why won’t you tell us?’ “Because my father [Pace supremo, Arnie Glimcher] would disown me!” he protested. (The Smith sculpture sold, incidentally.)

Phone Sex at Bärtschi Booth
First-time Armory visitors, Galerie Guy Bärtschi from Geneva are, according to director Gloria de Gaspar, doing good business and enjoying the fair. They are showing works by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy and Cornelia Parker among others, though the stand-out piece at their booth is a classic Wim Delvoye Telephone Sex (2005) “sculpture with tattooed pigskin framed between two glass plates.” It is offered at $45,000.

Watch Your Step
Several booths have bravely placed small, delicate sculptures on the floor, despite the throngs of absent-minded wanderers. One you really wouldn't want to tread on is Mark Manders' small clay baby, with strangely adult features, lying helplessly on its back, with three lumps of clay, like baby building blocks, next to it. Fragment from self-portrait as a building costs $35,000 and lies vulnerable in Antwerp's Zeno X Gallery booth. Gavin Turk's trompe l'oiel pillow, that looks like the real thing but is actually made from bronze, at Galerie Almine Rech is cryptically titled Inheritance. The gallerist also took out a similarly convincing apple core by Turk, also made from bronze, which he was too nervous to put on the floor for fear of it being picked up as garbage. There's another trick with unexpected material being pulled by Kevin Yates' Extension Cords, which lie in a tangle on the floor at Susan Hobbs. Don't kick them though, they're expertly carved from beech wood.

Size Matters
Pier 92 is massive, but you still wonder how they got two shockingly large canvases through the door. Lincolnville, Labor Day, by the ubiquitous Alex Katz, measures a grandiose 2.9 by 5.79 meters and costs $600,000 (it must have cost a pretty penny though to ship it here from the Milan gallery Monica de Cardenas, if indeed that's what they did). Barnaby Furnas' gorgeous behemoth Red Sea at Marriane Boesky beats Katz for size though. It's a whopping 3.5 by 8 meters. The gallery said it's been sold, but wouldn't reveal the price. If it went to a collector rather than a museum, somebody must have a pretty big living room.

Cups Overflowing
As the Armory Show was closing up last night, we headed to Tara Donavan's astonishing opening at PaceWildenstein in Chelsea. Donavan and her assistants took two million transparent plastic cups (which together cost $75,000) and piled them up to various heights to create an enormous undulating landscape that, one critic noted, you just wanted to roll around in. Chuck Close, circling the piece, which also at times resembled clouds seen from a plane, looked very impressed, as was the rest of the crowd.

Drunks or Art?
The procedure for getting on the in-list for Saturday’s “official” Armory Show party was so daunting (“RSVP Only!” “Limited Availability!”) that we came prepared with a press pass, a VIP card and a wealthy friend, in case a few $20s would have to be slipped into someone’s palm. Fortunately, we gained access to the premises, held in the appropriately arty environs (brick-walled and lofty) of the Metropolitan Building in Long Island City, Queens. Once we alighted from the elevator, however, we confess to having been a little underwhelmed by the scene, with nary a D-list celebrity or collector in site. There was, more positively, an open bar, which led to what we think were some genuine over-imbibed casualties sprawled out on the floor. Unless it was performance art.

Upstairs Downstairs
Gallerists consigned to the ‘Armory Editions Mezzanine on Pier 92 are far from happy. For some reason they seem to be getting far less traffic than the Pier 90 Mezzanine, location of the ArtInfo sponsored Internet Lounge. In fact, when ArtInfo spoke to Joni Moisant Weyl of Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl the mezzanine was pretty much deserted, despite the fact that immediately beneath us maybe 100 paying Armory Show customers were being prevented from entering because the pier had reached its legal capacity. Ms. Moisant Weyl revealed that she and the other ‘Armory Editions’ dealers such as Brooke Alexander had not been happy with their location from the moment that it had been announced, and had tried to negotiate with the Armory organizers for a less ghetto-ized position. Obviously, without success. So when we asked her whether she was disappointed with trade she replied that she had “less than zero expectations, so it wasn’t a disappointment. We’ve made a few sales, I can’t say better than that.” Among sales that she had made was a unique Elizabeth Murray three-dimensional work on paper, Mulberry (2004-05) that had gone for $15,500. She’ll be bringing in a couple more Murrays from her gallery today. Susan Inglett, whose booth features wooden trays by Andrea Zittel and a range of prints and a couple of drawings by Bruce Conner commented, "Prints should be on the floor with other works by the artists since it is part of the artists’ process." Nevertheless, she acknowledges, people are buying prints and a panel featuring Carroll Dunham and Trenton Doyle Hancock was packed. "The general public is catching on," she says, pointing out that today, "People who are making blue-chip works are making prints, too."

Art for Free
Back at Scope, Rhizome.org is staging All Systems Go as part of the “Cinema-scope” program of new-media, installation, and video art. Curated by Marisa Olson, this show presents installation and sculptural pieces by artists from the Internet community that Rhizome serves so well. Among the more striking pieces is a two-screen homage to Tehching Hsieh entitled 1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate) (2005) by MTAA. Ms. Olson is delighted with the attention the show has had but shrugs and says, “People have been really confused because we’re not looking to make money out of it.”

For Want of a Wall
A middle-aged man standing in front of the naked photograph of Marina Abramovic at Sean Kelly with his twenty-something son asks, “Does your mother have a wall we could stick it on?”

Full House
On Saturday, people were not allowed into Pier 92 because the population had reached its fire-safety limit. Looks like it's a gangbusters show.

SALES IN THE CITY: FAIR TRANSACTIONS

A Trick of the Eye
Why can't galleries simply hypnotize collectors into buying art? Galerie Chantal Crousel may have been the first to introduce this ingenious sales method, mesmerizing Armory visitors with Alain Sechas' novel electronic sculpture Cove, a giganitic rotating spiral that repeats the postive-thinking therapy mantra, "Everyday in every way, I'm getting better and better." Though the work may seem a bit gimicky to the distinguished collector, three of an edition of five had already sold for $40,000 early this weekend. Another electronic artwork offered by the gallery, an elaborate antenna apparatus by emerging artist Rikrit Tiravanja sold equally well, with two of an edition of three at $25,000.

Holzer Benches Booming
Mid-afternoon on day three and the blue chip woes continue. Two prominently displayed William Eggleston photographs (circa 1973) remained up for grabs at Cheim and Read. One is of a grinning gold-toothed yokel and the other, a serene-faced young blond at the reasonable price of $15,000 and $20,000 each. "It's very surprising," said gallery representative Adam Sheffer. Meanwhile, the gallery had nearly sold out of an edition of ten marble benches by Jenny Holzer inscribed with the dire warning, "What urge will save us now that sex won't?," at $50,000 each, only one remained. Also still available: one of Holzer's signature LED light sculptures, a one-of-a-kind piece offered at $250,000 and a strikingly regal self-portrait of photographer Jack Pierson (wearing nothing but his underwear), an edition of seven, at $25,000.

Out of Art
The Vilma Gold Gallery from London is delighted. “It’s been a great show. Everything on the stand is on reserve.” Will Daniels Napoleon Crossing the Great Saint Bernard Pass (2006) was being held for £8,500. They regretted that, even though they had had to consider shipping costs from London, they hadn’t brought work to refill the stand.

Go Figure
Upstairs in the refined, white-carpeted realms of Pier 92 housing Armory Prints, in the Gemini G.E.L. booth, an untitled 1994 color print by Bruce Nauman (30" x 40") in an edition of 50, is priced at $6,000. Beside it, a 2002 untitled Robert Gober print (51" x 36") from an edition of 65, costs a hearty $18,000, the frame is $900.

A Quiet Corner
Amidst the tumult and bombast of the fair, no one sends a quiet shiver down the spine like Fred Sandback. His three, small, string box sculptures from 1968 cling quietly and delicately to the corner of Rhona Hoffman's booth, performing a miracle of presence and perspective. And, fortunately, the piece makes you completely forget where you are. It sold for $110,000.

Gray’s Gift to NMCA
Congratulations to the New Museum of Contemporary Art. As well as publicizing its new building plans and drumming up memberships, they showed Jim Lambres Dubtronic (2005) a sprawling floor sculpture with concrete blocks and an array of electric lights, which has been purchased by Lisa Ivorian Gray to raise proceeds for the New Museum. An edition of 30 at $7,500 a time had sold out by Friday afternoon.

Subtlety Sells at Meyer Kainer
Galerie Meyer Kainer from Geneva has had a lot of success with their Marcin Maciejowski solo show. Clearly his subtle photo- and graphics-derived paintings have appealed to collectors, rather giving the lie to the myth that it is only the loud, attention-grabbing work that succeeds at an art fair like this. Almost everything on the stand had gone at between 16,000 and 40,000 euros, though a large factory graphic is still to find a buyer at 25,000 euros.

Happy Just to Be Here
The young artists from the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow have also enjoyed the fair. They have only sold one piece, Charlie Hammonds The Gentleman’s Cave, and that for a modest $1,750. But they reported that Owen Piper’s work had also received a lot of attention, and that in any case, “it’s more important to get attention for the artists and the gallery.”

L.A. Extra
Dealers were upbeat on Sunday afternoon when ArtInfo made a second swing through the L.A. Art Fair, which features 16 Tinsel Town galleries showing in the Altman Building, about 40 blocks south of the Armory Show piers and a quick step and a jump from the Chelsea gallery heartland.

Sandroni Rey sold four oil-on-linen paintings by Brooklyn-based artist John White Cerasulo. The paintings, which went for between $2,200-$2,400, are portraits of vaguely 19th-century looking characters, with our favorite being a man in a red beret, pressed uncomfortably close against a tree, eyeing a picnic in the distance.

Our pick at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery was an 11-minute video by Oliver Michaels, which featured a magical machine: balloons would inflate on one end of a box and from its other end would emerge mops, flower pots and other sundry objects. One video (of an edition of eight) sold for $11,000. (Michaels’ video Train was a standout at last year’s Greater New York show at P.S. 1; we watched the 15-minute loop twice.)

ACME. sold a small painting by Kurt Kauper for $10,000, a half-length portrait of a wonderfully average-looking couple displaying their naked torsos (the same artist has also painted Cary Grant, smiling and in full-frontal glory in a sunny California home).

Richard Heller was a gracious host when we visited his gallery. He informed us that five of the eight 14” x 11” Marcel Dzama works on paper he was displaying had sold for $2,500. The works, mostly from 1998-99 (made with ink, watercolor and root beer) feature standardly weird Dzama iconography: tree people, bears giving birth to ghouls, humorous scenes from hell, etc. Heller also sold for $5,500 a painting by Edward Del Rosario. Although his appealing paintings (of groups of odd figures against a solid-color background) have the sheen of a work done on a panel, they are actually painted on linen.

The Roberts & Tilton gallery sold a giant-scaled Kehinde Wiley, Willem van Heythuysen, for $30,000, plus the frame. The gallery still had for sale an Ai Yamaguchi acrylic-on-cotton of manga-like girls in kimonos for $11,000; and Eberhard Haverkosts Leinwand, that it is trying to sell for $100,000 on behalf of its private owner. The painting is a 13.75” x 11.80” inch close-up of a woman’s face. A discovery for us at the gallery was the mixed-media on paper works by Thomas Campbell, a professional surfer and documentary filmmaker, selling for between $1,000-$2,000. The works use thread, ink and paint in subtly effective fashion.

Before leaving the fair, we inquired at Marc Selwyn Fine Art if an Eva Hesse abstraction in blacks, grays and whites from 1961 were still available. It is, for $85,000.